THE 
PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 


,THE 

PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE, 


BY 

DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 

•• 

ORIGINALLY 

PUBLISHED  UNDER  THE 

TITLE  OF 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  DESPAIR 

THE  PLATES  BEING  DESTROYED 

IN  THE  FIRE  AT  SAN  FRANCISCO,  APRIL 

NINETEEN  HUNDRED  AND  SIX 

THE  TITLE  HAS  BEEN 

CHANGED  TO  ONE  MORE  CHEERFULLY 

DESCRIPTIVE  OF  THE  AUTHOR'S 

PURPOSE 


PAUL  ELDER  AND  COMPANY 

SAN  FRANCISCO  AND  NEW  YORK 


Copyright,  1902 
by  DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 

Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London 

Copyright,  1907 
by  PAUL  ELDER  AND  COMPANY 

First  Edition 

First  printing,  October,  1902 
Second  printing,  November,  1903 

Second  Edition 
First  printing,  March,  1907 


TO 

JOHN  MAXSON  STILLMAN 

IN  TOKEN  OF  GOOD  CHEER 


A  DARKENING  SKY  AND  A  WHITENING  SEA, 

AND  THE  WIND  IN  THE  PALM  TREES  TALL; 
SOON  OR  LATE  COMES  A  CALL  FOR  ME, 
DOWN  FROM  THE  MOUNTAIN  OR  UP  FROM  THE  SEA, 

THEN  LET  ME  LIE  WHERE  I  FALL. 

AND  A  FRIEND  MAY  WRITE  —  FOR  FRIENDS  THERE  BE, 

ON  A  STONE  FROM  THE  GRAY  SEA  WALL, 
"  JUNGLE  AND  TOWN  AND  REEF  AND  SEA  — 
I  LOVED  GOD'S  EARTH  AND  His  EARTH  LOVED  ME, 
TAKE  IT  FOR  ALL  IN  ALL." 


TODAY  is  YOUR  DAY  AND  MINE,  THE 

ONLY  DAY  WE  HAVE,  THE  DAY  IN 
WHICH  WE  PLAY  OUR  PART.  WHAT 
OUR  PART  MAY  SIGNIFY  IN  THE  GREAT 
WHOLE,  WE  MAY  NOT  UNDERSTAND, 
BUT  WE  ARE  HERE  TO  PLAY  IT,  AND 
NOW  IS  OUR  TIME.  THIS  WE  KNOW, 
IT  IS  A  PART  OF  ACTION,  NOT  OF  WHI- 
NING. IT  IS  A  PART  OF  LOVE,  NOT 
CYNICISM.  IT  IS  FOR  US  TO  EXPRESS 
LOVE  IN  TERMS  OF  HUMAN  HELPFUL- 
NESS. THIS  WE  KNOW,  FOR  WE  HAVE 
LEARNED  FROM  SAD  EXPERIENCE  THAT 
ANY  OTHER  COURSE  OF  LIFE  LEADS 
TOWARD  WEAKNESS  AND  MISERY. 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 


THE  BUBBLES  OF  SAKI 

From  Fitzgerald's  exquisite  version  of 
the  Rubaiyat  of  Omar  Khayyam,  I  take 
the  following  quatrains  which  may  serve 
as  a  text  for  what  I  have  to  say  : 

So  when  the  angel  of  the  darker  Drink 
At  last  shall  find  you  by  the  river-brink, 

And  offering  you  his  cup,  invite  your  Soul 
Forth  to  your  lips  to  quaff,  you  shall  not 
shrink. 

Why,  if  the  soul  can  fling  the  Dust  aside, 
And  naked  on  the  air  of  Heaven  ride, 

Wert  not  a  shame  —  wert  not  a  shame  for  him 
In  this  clay  carcase  crippled  to  abide  ? 

'Tis  but  a  tent  where  takes  his  one-day's  rest 
A  Sultan  to  the  realm  of  Death  addrest  ; 
The  Sultan  rises,  and  the  dark  Ferrash 
Strikes,  and  prepares  it  for  another  guest. 


fear  not  lest  Existence,  closing  your 
Account,  and  mine,  shall  know  the  like  no 

more  ; 

The  Eternal  Saki  from  that  bowl  hath  pour'd 
Millions  of  bubbles  like  us,  and  will  pour. 

[i] 


*f  tiE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

When  you  and  I  behind  the  veil  are  past, 

Oh,  but  the  long,  long  while  the  world  shall  last, 

Which  of  our  coming  and  departure  heeds 
As  the  Sev'n  Seas  shall  heed  a  pebble-cast. 

A  moment's  halt — a  momentary  taste 
Of  Being  from  the  Well  amid  the  waste, 

And  lo  !  — the  phantom  caravan  has  reach'd 
The  Nothing  it  set  out  from  —  O,  make  haste  ! 

#  #    # 

There  was  the  door  to  which  I  found  no  key  ; 
There  was  the  veil  through  which  I  could  not  see : 

Some  little  talk  awhile  of  Me  and  Thee 
There  was  —  and  then  no  more  of  Thee  and  Me. 

#  #    * 

Why,  all  the  Saints  and  Sages  who  discuss'd 
Of  the  two  worlds  so  learnedly  are  thrust 
Like  foolish  prophets  forth  ;   their  words  to 

scorn 
Are  scatter'd  and  their  mouths  are  stopt  with 

dust. 

#  #    # 

With  them  the  seed  of  wisdom  did  I  sow, 
And  with  my  own  hand  wrought  to  make  it 

grow; 

And  this  was  all  the  harvest  that  I  reap'd  — 
"  I  come  like  water,  and  like  wind  I  go." 

#  #    # 

[2] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

Ah  Love,  could  thou  and  I  with  Him  conspire 
To  grasp  this  sorry  scheme  of  Things  entire, 

Would  we  not  shatter  it  to  bits  —  and  then 
Re-mould  it  nearer  to  the  heart's  desire  ! 

Yon  rising  Moon  that  looks  for  us  again  — 
How  oft  hereafter  will  she  wax  and  wane  ; 

How  oft  hereafter  rising  look  for  us 
Through  this  same  garden  —  and  for  one  in  vain  ! 

And  when  like  her,  O  Saki,  you  shall  pass 
Among  the  guests,  star-scattered  on  the  grass, 
And  in  your  blissful  errand  reach  the  spot 
Where  I  made  one  —  turn  down  an  empty  glass  ! 


And,  again,  in  another  poem,  from  Car- 
men Silva's  Roumanian  folk-songs  : 

HOPELESS 

Into  the  mist  I  gazed,  and  fear  came  on  me, 
Then  said  the  mist:   "I  weep  for  the  lost  sun." 

We  sat  beneath  our  tent  ; 

Then  he  that  hath  no  hope  drew  near  us  there, 

And  sat  him  down  by  us. 

We  asked  him  :    "  Hast  thou  seen  the  plains, 

the  mountains  ?  " 
And  he  made  answer  :    "I  have  seen  them  all." 

[3] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

And  then  his  cloak  he  showed  us,  and  his  shirt, 
Torn  was  the  shirt,  there,  close  above  the  heart, 
Pierced  was  the  breast,  there,  close  above  the 

heart  — 

The  heart  was  gone. 

And  yet  he  trembled  not,  the  while  we  looked, 
And  sought  the  heart,  the  heart  that  was  not 

there. 

He  let  us  look.   And  he  that  had  no  hope 
Smiled,  that  we  grew  so  pale,  and  sang  us  songs. 
Then  we  did  envy  him,  that  he  could  sing 
Without  a  heart  to  suffer  what  he  sang. 
And  when  he  went,  he  cast  his  cloak  about  him, 
And  those  that  met  him,  they  could  never  guess 
How  that  his  shirt  was  torn  about  the  heart, 
And  that  his  breast  wras  pierced  above  the  heart, 
And  that  the  heart  was  gone. 

/  gazed  into  the  mist,  and  fear  came  on  me, 
Then  said  the  mist :   "I  weep  for  the  lost  sun." 

The  poem  of  Omar  as  interpreted  by 
Fitzgerald  is  perhaps  our  best  expression 
of  the  sadness  and  the  grandeur  of  insol- 
uble problems.  It  is  the  sweetness  of  phil- 
osophical sorrow  which  has  no  kinship 
with  misery  or  distress.  In  the  strains  of 

[4] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

the  saddest  music  the  soul  finds  the  keen- 
est delight.  The  same  sweet,  sorrowful 
pleasure  is  felt  in  the  play  of  the  mind 
about  the  riddles  which  it  cannot  solve. 
In  the  presence  of  the  infinite  problem 
of  life,  the  voice  of  Science  is  dumb,  for 
Science  is  the  coordinate  and  corrected 
expression  of  human  experience,  and  hu- 
man experience  must  stop  with  the  limita- 
tions of  human  life.  Man  was  not  present 
'When  the  foundations  of  the  Earth 
were  laid, ' '  and  beyond  the  certainty  that 
they  were  laid  in  wisdom  and  power,  man 
can  say  little  about  them.  Man  finds  in 
the  economy  of  nature  "no  trace  of  a 
beginning ;  no  prospect  of  an  end ! '  He 
may  feel  sure,  with  Hutton,  that  "time  is 
as  long  as  space  is  wide. ' !  But  he  cannot 
conceive  of  space  as  actually  without  limit, 
nor  can  he  imagine  any  limiting  condi- 
tions. He  cannot  think  of  a  period  before 
time  began,  nor  of  a  state  in  which  time 
shall  be  no  more.  The  mind  fails  before  the 

[5] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

idea  of  time's  eternal  continuity.  So  time 
becomes  to  man  merely  the  sequence  of 
the  earthly  events  in  which  he  and  his 
ancestors  have  taken  part.  Even  thus  lim- 
ited it  is  sadly  immortal,  while  man's  stay 
on  the  earth  is  but  of  "few  days  and  full 
of  trouble/'  "Oh,  but  the  long,  long 
while  this  world  shall  last ! '  or,  as  the 
grim  humorist  puts  it,  "we  shall  be  a  long 
time  dead. 

*  Though  the  meaning  of  time,  space, 
existence  lies  beyond  our  reach,  yet  some 
sort  of  solution  of  the  infinite  problem  the 
human  heart  demands.  We  find  in  life  a 
power  for  action,  limited  though  this 
power  may  be.  Life  is  action,  and  action 
is  impossible  if  devoid  of  motive  or  hope. 
It  is  my  purpose  here  to  indicate  some 
part  of  the  answer  of  Science  to  the  Phil- 
osophy of  Despair.  Direct  reply  Science 
has  none.  We  cannot  argue  against  a 
singer  or  a  poet.  The  poet  sings  of  what 
he  feels,  but  Science  speaks  only  of  what 

[6] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

we  have  experienced.  We  feel  infinity,  but 
we  cannot  know  it,  for  to  the  highest  hu- 
man wisdom  the  ultimate  truths  of  the 
universe  are  no  nearer  than  to  the  child. 
Science  knows  no  ultimate  truths.  Every- 
thing ultimate  is  beyond  the  reach  of  man, 
and  all  that  man  knows  must  be  stated  in 
terms  of  his  experience.  But  as  to  human 
experience  and  conduct,  Science  has  a  word 
to  say. 

— Therefore  Science  can  speak  of  the  causes 
and  results  of  Pessimism.  It  can  touch  the 
practical  side  of  the  riddle  of  life  by  asking 
certain  questions,  the  answers  to  which  lie 
within  the  province  of  human  experience. 
Among  these  are  the  following : 

Why  is  there  a  philosophy  of  Despair? 

Can  Despair  be  wrought  into  healthful 
life? 

In  what  part  of  the  Universe  are  you 
and  what  are  you  doing? 

Personal  despair  or  discouragement  may 
rise  from  failure  of  strength  or  failure  of 

[7] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

plans.  This  is  a  matter  of  every-day  occur- 
rence. The  'best  laid  schemes  o'  mice 
and  men ' '  generally  go  wrong,  no  doubt, 
but  this  fact  has  little  to  do  with  the  phil- 
osophy of  Pessimism.  It  is  natural  for 
mice  and  men  to  try  again  and  to  gain 
wisdom  from  failures.  "By  the  embers  of 
loss  we  count  our  gains. 

"The  Pessimism  of  Youth  we  may  first 
consider :  In  the  transition  from  childhood 
jto  manhood  great  changes  take  place  in 
the  nervous  system.  There  is  for  a  time  a 
period  of  confusion,  in  which  the  nerve 
cells  are  acquiring  new  powers  and  new 
relations.  This  is  followed  by  a  time  of 
joy  and  exuberance,  new  nerve  connections 
are  established,  new  possibilities  for  enjoy- 
ment are  developed.  These  give  a  sense  of 
a  new  life  in  a  new  world,  a  feeling  of  new 
power  and  adequacy,  the  thought  that  life 
is  richer  and  better  worth  living  than  the 
child  could  have  supposed. 
To  this  in  turn  comes  a  feeling  of 

'[8] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

reaction.  The  joys  of  life  have  been  a 
thousand  times  felt  before  they  come  to  us. 
We  are  but  following  part  of  a  cut-and- 
dried  program,  'performing  actions  and 
reciting  speeches  made  up  for  us  centuries 
before  we  were  born. ' '  The  new  power  of 
manhood  and  womanhood  which  seemed 
so  wonderful  find  their  close  limitations. 
As  our  own  part  in  the  Universe  seems  to 
shrink  as  we  take  our  place  in  it,  so  does 
the  Universe  itself  seem  to  grow  small, 
hard  and  unsympathetic.  Very  few  young 
men  or  young  women  of  strength  and 
feeling  fail  to  pass  through  a  period  of 
Pessimism^  With  some  it  is  merely  an 
affectation  caught  from  the  cheap  litera- 
ture of  decadence.  It  then  may  find  ex- 
pression in  imitatioriTas  a  few- years  ago 
the  sad-hearted  youth  turned  down  his 
collar  in  sympathy  with  the  "  conspicuous 
loneliness "  that  took  the  starch  out  of 
the  collar  of  Byron.  "The  youth,  *'  says 
Zangwill,  **says  bitter  things  about  Life 

[9] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

which  Life  would  have  winced  to  hear  had 
it  been  alive.'5  With  others  Pessimism 
has  deeper  roots  and  finds  its  expression  in 
the  poetry  or  philosophy  of  real  despair. 
This  adolescent  Pessimism  cannot  be 
wrought  into  action.  The  mood  disap- 
pears when  real  action  is  demanded.  The 
Pessimism  of  Youth  vanishes  with  the 
coming  of  life.  Through  the  rush  of  the 
new  century,  the  fad  of  the  drooping 
spirit  has  already  given  way  to  the  fad  of 
the  strenuous  life.  Equally  unreasoning  it 
may  be,  but  far  more  wholesome. 
>/  But  if  action  is  impossible,  the  mood 
remains,  and  here  arises  the  despair  of  the 
highly  educated.  The  purpose  of  knowl- 
edge is  action.  I  But  to  refuse  action  is  to 
secure  time  Tor  the  acquisition  of  more 
knowledge.  \  It  is  written  in  the  very  struc- 
ture of  the  brain  that  each  impression  of 
the  senses  must  bring  with  it  the  impulse 
to  act.  To  resist  this  impulse  is  in  turn 
to  destroy  it  and  to  substitute  a  dull 

[10]" 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

jp 

soul-ache  in  its  place.  ' '  Much  study  is  a 
weariness  of  the  flesh, ' '  and  the  experience 
of  all  the  ages  brings  only  despair  if  it 
cannot  be  wrought  into  life.  This  lack  of 
balance  between  knowledge  and  achieve- 
ment is  the  main  element  in  a  form  of 
ineffectiveness  which  with  various  others 
has  been  uncritically  called  Degeneration. 
As  the  common  pleasures  which  arise  from 
active  life  become  impossible  or  distaste- 
ful, the  desire  for  more  intense  and  novel 
joys  comes  in,  and  with  the  goading  of 
the  thirst  for  these  comes  ever  deeper  dis- 
couragement. l 

At  the  best,  the  tendency  of  large 
knowledge,  not  vitalized  by  practical  ex- 
perience, is  to  spend  itself  in  cynical 
criticism,  in  futile  efforts  to  tear  down 
without  feeling  the  higher  obligation  to 
build  up.N  For  it  is  the  essence  of  this  form 
of  Pessimism  to  feel  that  there  is  nothing 
on  earth  worth  the  trouble  of  building. 
The  real  is  only  a  "sneering  comment'' 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

.  =^— ^^^==!^^^^^^^ 

on  the  ideal,  and  man's  life  is  too  short  to 
make  any  action  worth  while. 

"  With  her  the  seed  of  Wisdom  did  I  sow, 
And  with  mine  own  hands  wrought  to  make 

it  grow ; 

And  this  is  all  the  harvest  that  I  reap'd, 
6 1  come  like  water,  and  like  wind  I  go.'  * 

One  of  the  few  things  that  we  may 
know  in  life  is  this,  that  it  is  impossible 
for  man  to  know  anything  absolutely. 
The  power  of  reasoning  is  a  mere  "by- 
product in  the  process  of  Evolution. ' '  It 
is  but  an  instrument  to  help  out  the  con- 
fusion of  the  senses,  and  it  is  conditioned 
by  the  accuracy  of  the  sense-perceptions 
with  which  it  deals.  There  is  no  appeal 
from  experience  to  reason,  for  reason  is 
powerless  to  act  save  on  the  facts  of  hu- 
man experience.  Speculative  philosophy 
can  teach  us  nothing  not  involved  in  the 
premises  we  assume.  The  senses  and 
the  reason  are  intensely  practical  and 
all  our  faculties  are  primarily  adapted  to 

[12] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

immediate  purposes.  Instruments  such  as 
these  cannot  serve  to  probe  the  nature  of 
the  infinite.  But  no  other  instruments 
lie  within  reach  of  man.  ][f  we  cannot 
"reach  the  heart  of  reality'  by  reason, 
what  indeed  can  we  reach?  What  right 
have  we  to  know  or  to  believe?  And  if 
we  can  know  or  believe  nothing,  what 
should  we  try  to  do  ?  And  how  indeed  can 
we  do  anything?  Every  man's  fate  is  de- 
termined by  his  heredity  and  his  environ- 
ment. In  the  Arab  proverb  he  is  born 
with  his  fate  bound  to  his  neck.  In  the 
course  of  life  we  must  do  that  which  has 
been  already  cut  out  for  us.  Our  parts 
were  laid  for  us  long  before  we  appeared  to 
take  them.  He  is  indeed  a  strong  man 
who  can  vary  the  cast  or  give  a  different 
cue  to  those  who  follow.  Nature  is  no  re- 
specter of  persons,  and  to  suppose  that 
any  man  is  in  any  degree  "the  arbiter  of 
his  own  destiny ' '  is  pure  illusion.  We  are 
thrust  forth  into  life,  against  our  will. 

[13] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

Against  our  will  we  are  forced  to  leave  it. 
We  find  ourselves,  as  has  been  said,  "on 
a  steep  incline,  where  we  can  veer  but 
little  to  the  left  or  right "  ;  whichever  way 
we  move  we  fall  finally  to  the  very  bot- 
tom. The  fires  we  kindle  die  away  in 
coals ;  castles  we  build  vanish  before  our 
eyes.  The^  river  sinks  in  the  sands  of  the 
desert.  The  character  we  form  by  our  ef- 
forts~ciisintegrates  in  spite  of  our  effort. 
If  life  be  spared  we  find  ourselves  once 
again  helpless  children.  Whichever  way 
"""we  turn  we  may  describe  the  course  of  life 
in  metaphors  of  discouragement. 
£  To  the  pessimistic  philosopher  the  prog- 
ress of  the  race  is  also  mere  illusion.  There 
is  no  progress,  only  adaptation.  Every 
creature  must  fit  itself  to  its  environment 
or  pass  away.  The  beast  fits  the  forest  for 
the  same  reason  that  the  river  fits  its  bed. 
Life  is  only  possible  under  the  rare  condi- 
tions in  which  life  is  not  destroyed. 

In  such  fashion  we  may  ring  the  changes 

[14] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

of  the  despair  of  philosophy.  If  we  are  to 
take  up  the  threads  of  life  by  the  farther 
end  only,  we  shall  never  begin  to  live,  for 
only  those  which  lie  next  us  can  ever  be 
in  our  hand.  To  grasp  at  ultimate  truth 
is  to  be  forever  empty-handed.  To  reach 
for  the  ultimate  end  of  action  is  never  to 
begin  to  act. 

Deeper  and  more  worthy  of  respect  is 
the  sadness  of  science.  The  effort  "to  see 
things  as  they  really  are, ' '  to  get  out  of  all 
make-believe  and  to  secure  that  "absolute 
veracity  of  thought ' '  without  which  sound 
action  is  impossible  does  not  always  lead 
to  hopefulness. 

There  is  much  to  discourage  in  human 
history, — in  the  facts  of  human  life.  The 
common  man,  after  all  the  ages,  is  still 
very  common.  He  is  ignorant,  reckless, 
unjust,  selfish,  easily  misled.  All  public 
affairs  bear  the  stamp  of  his  weakness. 
"Especially  is  this  shown  in  the  prevalence 
of  destructive  strife.  The  boasted  progress 

[15] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

of  civilization  is  dissolved  in  the  barbarism 
of  war.  Whether  glory  or  conquest  or 
commercial  greed  be  war's  purpose,  the 
ultimate  result  of  war  is  death.  Its  essen- 
tial feature  is  the  slaughter  of  the  young, 
the  brave,  the  ambitious,  the  hopeful, 
leaving  the  weak,  the  sickly,  the  discour- 
aged to  perpetuate  the  race.  Thus  all  mili- 
tant nations  become  decadent  ones.  Thus 
the  glory  of  Rome,  her  conquests  and  her 
splendor  of  achievement,  left  the  Romans 
at  home  a  nation  of  cowards,  from  whose 
brood  came  forward  the  new  generation. 
For  those  who  survive  are  not  the  sons  of 
the  Romans,  but  of  the  slaves,  scullions, 
the  idlers  and  camp-followers  whom  the 
years  of  Roman  glory  could  not  use  and 
did  not  destroy.  War  blasts  and  withers 
all  that  is  worthy  in  the  works  of  man. 

That  there  seems  no  way  out  of  this  is 
the  cause  of  the  sullen  despair  of  so  many 
scholars  of  Continental  Europe.  The  mil- 
lennium is  not  in  sight.  It  is  farther  away 

[16] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

than  fifty  years  ago.  The  future  is  nar- 
rowing down  and  men  do  not  care  to 
forecast  it.  It  is  enough  to  grasp  what  we 
may  of  the  present.  We  hear  '"the  ring 
of  the  hammer  on  the  scaffold. ' '  ' '  Let  us 
eat  and  drink,  for  tomorrow  we  die/' 
The  sad  kings/5  in  Watson's  phrase, 
can  only  pile  up  fuel  for  their  own  destruc- 
tion, and  the  failure  of  force  will  release 
the  unholy  brood  which  force  has  caused 
to  develop.  The  winds  of  freedom  are 
tainted  by  sulphurous  exhalations.  In  all 
our  merry-making  we  find  with  Ibsen  that 
'there  is  a  corpse  on  board/'  The  mask 
is  falling  only  to  show  the  Death's  head 
there  concealed.  Aristocracy,  Democracy, 
Anarchy,  Empire,  the  history  of  politics, 
is  the  eternal  round  of  the  Dance  of  Death. 
N  When  we  look  at  human  nature  in  detail 
we  find  more  of  animal  than  of  angel,  and 
the  "veracity  of  thought  and  action/3 
which  is  the  choicest  gift  of  Science,  is  lost 
in  the  happy-go-lucky  movement  of  the 

[17] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

human  mob:uJ"To  see  things  as  they 
Teafly^re^^is  the  purpose  of  the  philoso- 
phy of  Pessimism  in  the  hands  of  its 
worthiest  exponents.  But  we  know  what 
^is,  and  that  alone,  even  were  such  knowl- 
edge possible,  is  not  to  know  the  truth. 
The  higher  wisdom  seeks  to  find  the  forces 
at  work  to  produce  that  which  now  is. 
The  present  time  is  the  meeting  time  of 
forces;  the  present  fact  their  temporary 
product.  To  the  philosophy  of  Evolution, 
"every  meanest  day  is  the  conflux  of  two 
eternities. ' '  Each  meanest  fact  is  the  prod- 
uct of  the  world-forces  that  lie  behind  it ; 
each  meanest  man  the  resultant  of  the 
vast  powers,  alive  in  human  nature,  strug- 
gling since  life  began.  And  these  forces, 
omnipotent  and  eternal,  will  never  cease 
their  work. 

/To  the  philosophy  of  Pessimism,  the 
child  is  a  mere  human  larva,  weak,  per- 
verse, disagreeable,  the  heir  of  mortality, 
with  all  manner  of  "defects  of  doubt  and 

[18] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

taints  of  blood/3  gathered  in  the  long 
experience  of  its  wretched  parentage. 

In  the  more  hopeful  view  of  Evolution 
the  child  exists  for  its  possibilities.  The 
huge  forces  within  have  thrown  it  to  the 
surface  of  time.  They  will  push  it  onward 
to  development,  which  may  not  be  much 
in  the  individual  case,  but  beyond  it  all 
lie  the  possibilities  of  its  race.  Inherent 
in  it  is  the  power  to  rise,  to  form  its 
own  environment,  to  stand  at  last  superior 
to  the  blind  forces  by  which  the  human 
will  was  made.  With  this  thought  is  sure 
.to  come,  in  some  degree,  the  certainty 
that  the  heart  of  the  Universe  is  sound, 
that  though  there  be  so  many  of  us  in 
the  world,  each  must  have  his  place,  and 
each  at  last  "be  somehow  needful  to  infin- 
ity./ We  can  see  that  each  least  creature 
h#s  its  need  for  being.  The  present  justi- 
fies the  past.  It  is  the  transcendent  future 
which  renders  the  commonplace  present 
possible. 

[19] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

The  "  dragons  of  the  prime, 
That  tore  each  other  in  the  slime," 

lived  and  fought  that  we,  their  descendants, 
may  realize  ourselves  in  ' '  lives  made  beau- 
tiful and  sweet/'  through  all  unlikeness  to 
dragons.  It  was  necessary  that  every  foot 
of  soil  in  Europe  should  be  crimsoned  by 
blood,  wantonly  shed,  to  bring  the  relative 
peace  and  tolerance  of  the  civilization  of 
Europe  today.  It  always  "needs  that 
offense  must  come"  to  bring  about  the 
better  condition  in  which  each  particular 
offense  shall  be  done  away.  For  the  evo- 
lution of  life  is  not  in  straight  lines  from 
lower  to  higher  things,  but  runs  rather  in 
wavering  spirals.  It  is  the  resultant  of 
.stress  and  storm.  The  evil  and  failure 
which  darken  the  present  are  necessary  to 
the  illumination  of  the  future.  Time  is 
long.  "God  tosses  back  to  man  his  fail- 
ures "  one  by  one,  and  gives  him  time  and 
strength  to  try  again. 

According  to  Schopenhauer,  we  move 

[20] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

across  the  stage  of  life  stung  by  appetite 
aruTgoaded  by  desire,  in  pain  unceasing,— 
the  sole  respite  from  pain,  the  instant  in 
which  desire  is  lost  in  satisfaction.  To  do 
away  with  desire  is  to  destroy  pain,  but 
it  also  destroys  existence.  Desire  is  lost 
where  the  "mouth  is  stopped  with  dust/5 
and  with  death  only  comes  relief  from 
pain. 

"Thus  the  Pessimist  tells  us  that  'the 
only  reality  in  life  is  pain//  But  surely 
this  is  not  the  truth.  He  who  knows  no 
reality  save  appetite  has  never  known  life 
at  all.  The  realities  in  life  are  love  and 
action ;  not  desire,  but  the  exercise  of  our 
appointed  functions. 

Action  follows  sensation.  The  more  we 
have  to  do,  the  more  accurate  must  be  our 
sensations,  the  greater  the  hold  environ- 
ment has  upon  us.  Broader  activities 
demand  better  knowledge  of  our  surround- 
ings. Greater  sensitiveness  to  external 
things  means  greater  capacity  for  pain, 

[21] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

hence  greater  suffering,  when  the  natural 
channels  of  effort  are  closed.  Thus  arises 
the  hope  for  nqthingness  in, which  many 
sensitive  souls  have  indulged.  With  no 
surroundings  at  all,  or  with  environment 
that  never  varies,  there  could  be  no  sense- 
perception.  To  see  nothing,  to  hear  noth- 
ing, to  feel  nothing — there  could  be  no 
demand  for  action.  With  no  failure  of 
action  there  could  be  no  weariness.  From 
the  varied  environment  of  this  earthly 
life,  spring,  through  adaptation,  the  varied 
powers,  the  varied  sensibilities  and  sus- 
ceptibilities to  joy  and  pain  as  well  as  the 
rest.  The  greater  the  sensitiveness  the 
greater  the  capacity  for  suffering.  Hence 
it  is  the  ' '  quenching  of  desire, ' '  the  ' '  turn- 
ing toward  Nirvana,"  the  eagerness  to 
escape  from  the  hideous  bustle  of  a  world 
in  which  we  are  able  to  take  no  part, 
is  but  a  natural  impulse  with  the  soul 
which  feels  and  yet  cannot  or  will  not 
act. 

[22] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

w  Can  it  be,  O  Christ  in  Heaven, 
That  the  highest  suffer  most, 
That  the  strongest  wander  farthest 
And  most  hopelessly  are  lost  ?  — 

"  That  the  mark  of  rank  in  Nature 

Is  capacity  for  pain, 
And  the  anguish  of  the  singer 

Marks  the  sweetness  of  the  strain  ?  " 

That  this  must  be  so  rests  in  the  very 
nature  of  things.  The  most  perfect  in- 
strument is  one  most  easily  thrown  out 
of  adjustment.  The  most  highly  de- 
veloped organism  is  the  most  exactly 
fitted  to  its  functions,  the  one  most  deeply 
injured  when  these  functions  are  altered 
or  suppressed. 

\  Man's  sensations  and  power  to  act  must 
go  together.  Man  can  know  nothing  that 
he  cannot  somehow  weave  into  action. 
If  he  fails  to  do  this  in  one  form  or  an- 
other, it  is  through  limitations  he  has 
placed  on  himself.  Man  cannot  suffer  for 
lack  of  ' '  more  worlds  to  conquer, ' '  because 

[23] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

his  power  to  conquer  worlds  is  the  product 
of  his  own  past  life  and  his  own  past 
needs.  To  weave  knowledge  into  action 
is  the  antidote  for  ennui.  To  plan,  to 
hope^to^OjjtcNaccomplish  the  full  measure' 
of  our  powers,  whatever  they  may  be,  is 
to  turn  away  from  Nirvana  to  real  life.  A 
useful  man,  a  helpful  man,  an  active  man 
in  any  sense,  even  though  his  activity  be 
misdirected  or  harmful,  is  always  a  hope- 
fill  manTj 

The  feeling  that  'the  only  reality  in 
life  is  pain, ' '  is  the  sign  not  of  philosophi- 
cal acuteness  but  of  bodily  under- vitaliza- 
tion.  The  nervous  system  is  too  feeble  for 
the  body  it  has  to  move.  To  act  is  to 
make  the  environment  your  servant.  Its 
pressure  is  no  longer  pain  but  joy.  The 
concessions  which  life  has  made  to  time 
and  space  are  the  source  of  life's  glory 
and  power. 

The  function  of  the  nervous  system  is 
to  carry  from  the  environment  to  the 

[24] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

brain  the  impressions  of  truth,  that  action 
may  be  true  and  safe.  Pain  and  pleasure 
are  both  incidental  to  sound  action.  The 
one  drives,  the  other  coaxes  us  toward  the 
path  of  wisdom.  If  pain  is  in  excess  of 
joy  in  our  experience,  it  is  because  we  have 
wandered  from  the  path  of  normal  activity. 
By  right-doing,  we  mean  that  action 
which  makes  for  "abundance  of  life,"  and 
abundance  of  life  means  fulness  of  joy. 
'Though  life  be  sad,  yet  there's  joy  in  the 
living  it,"  was  the  word  of  the  ancient 
Greeks,  "who  ever  with  a  frolic  welcome 
took  the  Thunder  and  the  Sunshine. ' ' 

The  life  of  man  is  dynamic,  not  static ; 
not  a  condition  but  a  movement.  "Not 
enjoyment  and  not  sorrow"  is  its  end  or 
justification.  It  is  a  rush  of  forces,  an 
evolution  toward  greater  activities  and 
higher  adjustment,  the  growth  of  a  sta- 
bility which  shall  be  ever  more  unstable. 
This  onward  motion  is  recognized  in  the 
pessimistic  philosophy  of  Von  Hartmann, 

[25] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

as  a  movement  toward  ever  greater  possi- 
bilities of  pain.  With  him  life  is  'the 
supreme  blunder  of  the  blind  unconscious 
force"  which  created  man  and  developed 
him  as  the  prey  of  ever-increasing  suffering. 

But  the  power  to  enjoy  has  grown  in 
like  degree,  and  both  joy  and  pain  are  sub- 
ordinated to  the  power  to  act.  The  human 
will,  the  power  to  do,  is  the  real  end  of 
the  stress  and  struggle  of  the  ages.  How- 
ever limited  its  individual  action,  the  will 
finds  its  place  among  the  gigantic  factors 
in  the  evolution  of  life.  It  is  not  the  pres- 
ent, but  the  ultimate,  which  is  truth.  Not 
the  unstable  and  temporary  fact  but  the 
boundless  clashing  forces  which  endlessly 
throw  truths  to  the  surface. 

Another  source  of  Pessimism  is  the  re- 
action from  unearned  pleasures  and  from 
spurious  joys.  It  is  the  business  of  the 
senses  to  translate  realities,  to  tell  the 
truth  about  us  in  terms  of  human  ex- 
perience. Every  real  pleasure  has  its  cost 

[26] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

in  some  form  of  nervous  activity.  Only 
in  doing  and  loving  is  permanent  satis- 
faction. There  is  no  permanent  state  of 
happiness.  Its  joys  must  be  won  afresh , 
with  each  new  happy  day.  What  we  get 
we  must  earn,  if  it  is  to  be  really  ours. 
Long  ago,  in  the  infancy  of  civilization, 
man  learned  that  there  were  drugs  in 
Nature,  cell  products  of  the  growth  or 
transformation  of  ' '  our  brother  organisms, 
the  plants,"  by  whose  agency  pain  was 
turned  to  pleasure.  By  the  aid  of  these 
outside  influences  he  could  clear  "today 
of  past  regrets  and  future  fears, ' '  and  strike 
out  from  the  sad  "calendar  unborn  to- 
morrow and  dead  yesterday. 

That  the  joys  thus  produced  had  no 
real  objective  existence,  man  was  not  long 
in  finding  out,  and  it  soon  appeared  that 
for  each  subjective  pleasure  which  had  no 
foundation  in  action,  there  was  a  subjec- 
tive sorrow,  likewise  unrelated  to  external 
things. 

[27] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

But  that  the  pains  more  than  balanced 
the  joys,  and  that  the  indulgence  in  un- 
earned deceptions  destroyed  sooner  or  later 
all  capacity  for  enjoyment,  man  learned 
more  slowly. 

The  joys  of  wine,  of  opium,  of  tobacco 
and  of  all  kindred  drugs  are  mere  tricks 
upon  the  nervous  system.  In  greater  or 
less  degree  they  destroy  its  power  to  tell 
the  truth,  and  in  proportion  as  they  have 
seemed  to  bring  subjective  happiness,  so 
do  they  bring  at  last  subjective  horror  and 
disgust.  And  this  utter  soul-weariness  of 
drugs  has  found  its 'way  into  literature  as 
the  expression  of  Pessimism. 

"The  City  of  the  Dreadful  Night,"  for 
example,  does  not  find  its  inspiration  in 
the  misery  of  selfish,  rushing,  crowded 
London.  It  is  the  effect  of  brandy  on  the 
sensitive  mind  of  an  exquisitive  poet. 
Not  the  world,  but  the  poet,  lies  in  the 
"dreadful  night"  of  self-inflicted  insom- 
nia. Wherever  these  subjective  nerve 

[28] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

influences  find  expression  in  literature  it 
is  either  in  an  infinite  sadness,  or  in  hope- 
less gloom.  James  Thompson  says  in  the 
"City  of  the  Dreadful  Night"  : 

"The  city  is  of  night  but  not  of  sleep  ; 

There  sweet  sleep  is  not  for  the  weary  brain. 
The  pitiless  hours  like  years  and  ages  creep  — 
A  night  seems  termless  helL   This  dreadful 

strain 

Of  thought  and  consciousness  which  never  ceases, 
Or  which  some  moment's  stupor  but  increases." 


"  This  Time  which  crawleth  like  a  monstrous  snake, 
Wounded  and  slow  and  very  venomous."      * 

i1»* 


Lo,  as  thus  prostrate  in  the  dust  I  write 

My  heart's  deep  languor  and  my  soul's  sad 
tears  — 

But  why  evoke  the  spectres  of  black  night 
To  blot  the  sunshine  of  exultant  years  !  " 

Because  a  cold  rage  seizes  one  at  times 

To  show  the  bitter,  old  and  wrinkled  truth, 

Stripped  naked  of  all  vesture  that  beguiles 
False  dreams,  false  hopes,  false  masks  and 
modes  of  youth." 

[29] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

All  this,  alas,  is  the  inevitable  physical 
outcome  of  the  attempt  to — 

"  Divorce  old,  barren  Reason  from  my  house 
To  take  the  daughter  of  the  vine  to  spouse." 

All  subjective  happiness  due  to  nerve 
stimulation  is  of  the  nature  of  mania.  In 
proportion  to  its  intensity  is  the  certainty 
that  it  will  be  followed  by  its  subjective 
reaction,  the  "Nuit  Blanche,"  the  "dark 
brown  taste/'  by  the  experience  of  "the 
difference  in  the  morning."  The  only 
melancholy  drugs  can  drive  away  is  that 
which  they  themselves  produce.  It  is  folly 
to  use  as  a  source  of  pleasure  that  which 
lessens  activity  and  vitiates  life. 

There  are  many  other  causes  which  in- 
duce depression  of  mind  and  disorder  of 
nerve.  Where  nerve  decay  is  associated 
with  genius  and  culture,  we  shall  find 
some  phase  of  the  philosophy  of  Pessi- 
mism. In  fact,  cheerfulness  is  not  primar- 
ily a  result  of  right  thinking,  but  rather 

[30] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

the  expression  of  soundjoerves  and  normal 
vegetative  processes.  ^Most  of  the  phil- 
(  osophy  of  Despair,  the  longing  to  know 
the  meaning  of  the  unattainable,  vanishes 
with  active  out-of-door  life  and  the  conse- 
quent flow  of  good  health.  Even  a  dose 
of  quinine  may  convert  to  hopefulness 
when  both  sermons  and  arguments  fail. 

For  a  degree  of  optimism  is  a  necessary 
accompaniment  of  health.  It  is  as  natural 
as  animal  heat,  and  is  the  mental  reflex  of 
it.  Pessimism  arises  from  depression  or 
irritation  or  failure  of  the  nerv 


There  is  a  philosophical  Pessimism,  as 
I  have  already  said,  over  and  above  all 
merely  physical  conditions,  and  not  de- 
pendent on  them.  But  the  melancholy 
Jacques  of  our  ordinary  experience  either 
uses  some  narcotic  or  stimulant  to  excess, 
or  else  has  trouble  with  his  liver  or  kidneys. 
: '  Liver  complaint, ' '  says  Zangwill,  ' '  is  the 

[31] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

Prometheus  myth  done  into  modern  Eng- 
lish. "  Already  historical  criticism  has 
shown  that  the  Bloody  Assizes  had  its 
origin  in  disease  of  the  bladder,  and  most 
forms  of  vice  and  cruelty  resolve  them- 
selves into  decay  of  the  nerves.  It  is 
natural  that  degeneration  should  bring 
Discouragement  and  disgust.  But  what-^ 
ever  the  causes  of  Pessimism,  whether 
arising  in  speculative  philosophy,  in  nerv- 
ous disease  or  in  personal  failure,  it  can 
never  be  wrought  into  sound  and  helpful 
y  life.  To  live  effectively  implies  the  belief 
that  life  is  worth  living,  and  no  one  who 
leads  a  worthy  life  has  ever  for  a  moment 
doubted  this. 

(jSuch  an  expression  as  "worth  living'5 
has  in  fact  no  real  meaning.  /To  act  and 
to  love  are  the  twin  functions  of  the 
human  body  and  soul.')  To  refuse  these 
functions  is  to  make  one's  self  incapable  of 
them.  It  is  in  a  sense  to  die  while  the  body 
is  still  alive.  To  refuse  these  functions  is 

[32] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

to  make  misery  out  of  existence,  and  a  life 
of  ennui  is  doubtless  not  "worth  living  ' 
|The  philosophy  of  life  is  its  working 
hypothesis  of  action.  To  hold  that  ally 
effort  is  futile,  that  all  knowledge  is  illu- 
sion, and  that  no  result  of  the  human  will 
is  worth  the  pain  of  calling  it  into  action, 
is  to  cut  the  nerve  of  effectiveness.  In 
proportion  as  one  really  believes  this,  he 
becomes  a  cumberer  of  the  ground.  It  was 
said  of  Oscar  McCulloch,  an  earnest  stu- 
dent of  human  life,  that,  "in  whatever 
part  of  God's  Universe  he  finds  himself, 
he  will  be  a  hopeful  man,  looking  forward 
and  not  backward,  looking  upward  and 
not  downward,  always  ready  to  lend  a 
helping  hand,  and  not  afraid  to  die. 
Of  like  spirit  was  Robert  Louis  Stevenson : 

"  Glad  did  I  live  and  gladly  die, 
And  I  laid  me  down  with  a  will." 

It  is  through  men  of  this  type  that  the 
work  of  civilization  has  been  accomplished,  7 

[33] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

"men  of  present  valor,  stalwart,  brave 
iconoclasts/'  They  were  men  who  were 
content  with  the  order  of  the  Universe  as 
it  is,  and  seek  only  to  place  their  own 
actions  in  harmony  with  this  order. 
They  have  no  complaints  to  urge  against 
"the  goodness  and  severity  of  God/5 
nor  any  futile  wish  "to  remould  it 
nearer  to  the  heart's  desire/'  The  "Fa- 
naticism for  Veracity'  is  satisfied  with 
what  is.  Not  the  ultimate  truth  which 
is  God's  alone,  but  the  highest  attainable 
truth,  is  the  aim  of  Science,  and  to  trans- 
late Science  into  Virtue  is  the  goal  of 
civilization. 

^rhe  third  question  which  Science  may 
ask  is  the  direct  one.  In  what  part  of  the 
Universe  are  you,  and  what  are  you  doing? 
Thoreau  says  that  "there  is  no  hope  for 
you  unless  this  bit  of  sod  under  your  feet 
is  the  sweetest  to  you  in  this  world — in 
any  world."  Why  not?  Nowhere  is  the 
sky  so  blue,  the  grass  so  green,  the 

[34] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

sunshine  so  bright,  the  shade  so  welcome, 
as  right  here,  now,  today.  No  other  blue 
sky,  nor  bright  sunshine,  nor  welcome 
shade  exists  for  you.  Other  skies  are 
bright  to  other  men.  They  have  been 
bright  in  the  past  and  so  will  they  be 
again,  but  yours  are  here  and  now.  Today 
is  your  day  and  mine,  the  only  day  we 
have,  the  day  in  which  we  play  our  part. 
What  our  part  may  signify  in  the  great 
whole  we  may  not  understand,  but  we^are 
here  to  play  it,  and  now  is  the  time.  This 
we  know,  it  is  a  part  of  action,  not  of 
whining.  It  is  a  part  of  love,  not  cynicism. 
It  is  for  us  to  express  love  in  terms  of 
human  helpfulness.  This  we  know,  for  we 
have  learned  from  sad  experience  that  any 
other  course  of  life  leads  toward  weakness 
and  misery. 

What,  then,  are  you  doing  under  these 
blue  skies?  The  thing  you  do  should  be 
for  you  the  most  important  thing  in  the 
world.  If  you  could  do  something  better 

[35] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

than    you    are    doing    now,    everything 
considered,  why  are  you  not  doing  it? 

If  every  one  did  the  very  best  he  knew, 
I  most  of  the  problems  of  human  life  would 
be  already  settled.  If  each  one  did  the  best 
he  knew,  he  would  be  on  the  highway 
to  greater  knowledge,  and  therefore  still 
better  action.  The  world's  redemption  is 
waiting  only  for  each  man  to  "lend  a 
hand." 

It  does  not  matter  if  the  greatest  thing 
for  you  to  do  be  not  in  itself  great.  The 
best  preparation  for  greatness  comes  in 
doing  faithfully  the  little  things  that  lie 
nearest.  The  nearest  is  the  greatest  in 
most  human  lives. 

Even  washing  one's  own  face  may  be 
the  greatest  present  duty.  The  ascetics  of 
the  past,  who  scorned  cleanliness  in  the 
search  for  godliness,  became,  sometimes, 
neither  clean  nor  holy.  For  want  of  a 
clean  face  they  lost  their  souls. 

It  was  Agassiz's  strength  that  he  knew 

[36] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

the  value  of  today.  Never  were  such 
bright  skies  as  arched  above  him ;  nowhere 
else  were  such  charming  associates,  such 
budding  students,  such  secrets  of  nature 
fresh  to  his  hand.  His  was  the  buoyant 
strength  of  the  man  who  can  look  the 
stars  in  the  face  because  he  does  his  part 
in  the  Universe  as  well  as  they  do  theirs. 
It  is  the  fresh,  unspoiled  confidence  of  the 
natural  man,  who  finds  the  world  a  world 
of  action  and  joy,  and  time  all  too  short 
for  the  fulness  of  life  which  it  demands. 
When  Agassiz  died,  "the  best  friend  that 
ever  student  had,"  the  students  of  Har- 
vard "laid  a  wreath  of  laurel  on  his  bier, 
and  their  manly  voices  sang  a  requiem,  for 
he  had  been  a  student  all  his  life  long,  and 
when  he  died  he  was  younger  than  any  of 
them." 

/Optimism   in   life   is   a   good  working 
hypothesis.    To  be  optimistic  is  not  neces- fa 
sarily  to  be  foolish,  to  lose  the  clearness  of 
horizon,  the  sense  of  values,  by  centering 

[37] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

all  on  self.  The  true  optimism  is  the 
open-eyed  faith  that  all  is  worth  while, 
and  that  our  own  part  in  it  is  worth  play- 
ing to  the  end.  / 

What  if  there  are  so  many  of  us  in  the 
ranks  of  humanity?  What  if  the  individ- 
ual be  lost  in  the  mass  as  a  pebble  cast 
into  the  Seven  Seas?  Would  you  choose 
a  world  so  small  as  to  leave  room  for  only 
you  and  your  satellites?  Would  you  ask 
for  problems  of  life  so  tame  that  even  you 
could  grasp  them?  Would  you  choose  a 
fibreless  Universe  to  be  "remoulded  nearer 
to  the  heart's  desire/'  in  place  of  the  wild, 
tough,  virile,  man-making  environment 
from  which  the  Attraction  of  Gravitation 
lets  none  of  lis  escape? 

It  is  not  that  "I  come  like  water  and 
like  wind  I  go. ' '  I  am  here  today,  and  the 
moment  and  the  place  are  real,  and  my 
will  is  itself  one  of  the  fates  that  make 
and  unmake  all  things.  "Every  meanest 
day  is  the  conflux  of  two  eternities. ' !  In 

[38] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^™ 

this  center  of  all  time  and  space  for  the 
moment  it  is  I  that  stand.  Great  is  Eter- 
nity, but  it  is  made  up  of  time.  Could  we 
blot  out  one  day  in  the  midst  of  time, 
Eternity  could  be  no  more.  The  smallest 
alone  has  its  place  within  the  infinite 
Omnipotence. 

'It  is  a  question  not  of  hope  or  despair, 
but  of  truth ;  not  of  optimism  nor  of  Pes- 
simism, but  of  wisdom.  Wisdom  is  know- 
ing what  to  do  next ;  virtue  is  doing  it. 
Religion  is  the  heart  impulse  that  turns 
toward  the  best  and  highest  course  of 
action.  "It  was  my  duty  to  have  loved 
the  highest/5  What  does  that  demand? 
What  have  I  to  do  next  ?  Not  in  infinity, 
where  we  can  do  nothing,  but  here,  today, 
the  greatest  day  that  ever  was,  for  it  alone 
is  mine ! 

What  matter  is  it  that  time  does  not 
end  with  us  ?  Neither  with  us  does  history 
begin.  An  Emperor  of  China  once  decreed 
that  nothing  should  be  before  him,  that 

[39] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

all  history  should  begin  with  him.    But  he 
could  go  no  farther  than  his  own  decree. 
Who  are  you  that  would  be  Emperor  of 
China? 

"The  eternal  Saki  from  that  bowl  hath  poured 
Millions  of  bubbles  like  us  and  shall  pour." 

Why  not?  Should  life  stop  with  you? 
What  have  you  done  that  you  should 
mark  the  end  of  time?  If  you  have  played 
your  part  in  the  procession  of  bubbles,  all 
is  well,  though  the  best  you  can  do  is  to 
leave  the  world  a  little  better  for  the  next 
that  follows. 

If  you  have  not  made  life  a  little  richer 
and  its  conditions  a  little  more  just  by  your 
living  you  have  not  touched  the  world. 
You  are  indeed  a  bubble.  If  some  kind 
friend  somewhere  "turn  down  an  empty 
glass, ' '  it  will  be  the  best  monument  you 
deserve.  But  to  have  had  a  friend  is  to 
leave  the  glass  not  wholly  empty,  for  life 
is  justified  in  love  as  well  as  in  action. 

[40] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

The  words  of  Omar  need  to  be  read 
with  the  rising  inflection,  and  they  become 
the  expression  of  exultant  hopefulness. 

"  The  eternal  Saki  from  that  bowl  hath  poured 
Millions  of  bubbles  and  SHALL  POUR  !  " 

Small  though  we  are  the  story  is  not  all 
told  when  we  are  dead.  The  huge  proces- 
sion goes  on  and  shall  go  on,  till  the  secret 
of  the  grand  symphony  of  life  is  reached. 

"A  single  note  in  the  Eternal  Song 
A  perfect  Singer  hath  had  need  for  me." 
#    #    # 

"  I  do  rejoice  that  when  of  Thee  and  Me 

Men  speak  no  longer,  yet  not  less  but  more 
The  Eternal  Saki  still  that  bowl  shall  fill 
And  ever  fairer,  clearer  bubbles  pour." 

In  the  same  way  we  must  read  with  the 
rising  inflection  the  lines  of  Tennyson : 

"I  falter  when  I  firmly  trod, 

And  falling  with  my  weight  of  cares, 
Upon  the  World's  great  altar-stairs 
That  slope  through  darkness,  UP  TO  GOD  !  " 

[41] 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 

Read  these  words  with  courage,  and 
with  the  upward  turn  of  the  voice  at  the 
end.  It  is  no  longer  in  the  darkness  that 
we  falter.  The  great  altar-stairs  of  which 
no  man  knows  the  beginning  nor  the  end, 
do  not  spring  from  the  mire  nor  end  in 
the  mists.  They  "slope  through  darkness 
up  to  God,"  and  no  one  could  ask  a 
stronger  expression  of  that  robust  opti- 
mism, that  philosophy  of  Joy  and  Hope 
which  must  be  the  mainspring  of  success- 
ful life. 


[42] 


HERE  ENDS  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HOPE 
BY  DAVID  STARR  JORDAN.  PUBLISHED  BY 
PAUL  ELDER  AND  COMPANY  AND  PRINTED 
FOR  THEM  BY  THE  TOMOYE  PRESS,  CITY 
OF  NEW  YORK,  IN  THE  YEAR  MCMVIL 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


j       p 

1  H£"P       "7  'r*"i 

ULI    /  63-io 

M 

!  NOV  29  198660 

«ect£V£D 

MM  2  9  '66  -10  AM 

I1OAN  DEPT. 

w  Ii,4^ 

(lf/1/j  on  »«-_ 

uo  67-9  AM 

«MS  141992 

.1OI82 

AUTO  DISC  CIPC    «tf 

T  r»  01  A    /in«v,  /i  TO                                    General  Library 

^l^fsfoHT'eB                    Universfe  ££**»•» 

YB  76442- 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


